Gardai in Cork say the discovery of a £1 million cannabis cache in a remote forestry plantation in the north of the county is a significant blow to one of the city's main drug suppliers.
Members of the Cork Drugs Squad, together with gardai from Macroom, uncovered 60 kg of cannabis resin - worth an estimated £600,000 - on Thursday night in the conifer forest at Glenaknouckana near Nadd off the main Cork-Kanturk Road.
The find, made with the assistance of a sniffer dog, followed the discovery nearby of 40 kg of the drug worth £400,000 earlier on Thursday. The plantation covers vast tracts of bogland in the Boggeragh mountains.
The drugs, packed in 1 kg amounts, were hidden in five cardboard boxes which were wrapped in black plastic and partially buried in an embankment in the forest. Gardai were alerted to the cache by a man walking his dog in the area.
They believe it was "a mother dump" belonging to a man in his 30s living in the Blarney area who is one of the biggest suppliers of drugs in Cork city. The drugs were in good condition but may have been there for some months.
A Garda source said: "The typical pattern of dispersal is to stash the drugs in amounts of between 10 and 20 kilos so this is a much bigger find" which would have been used to draw supplies for smaller dumps around the city. "It's from these smaller dumps then that he would have supplied his dealers and distributors in the city." He said the location, although remote, was well marked out with signs to help gang members recover the drug.
Gardai from the Cork divisional drugs squad in Anglesea Street removed the drugs follo wing forensic examination at the scene and yesterday put the 100 kg haul on display at Anglesea Street. No arrests have been made in connection with the find.
The Nadd find follows a series of similar drug discoveries in the greater Cork area over the past 18 months with two seizures totalling almost £1 million in Knockraha in east Cork and Kilumney. Four men were arrested.
On Thursday, a Carrigaline drug-dealer, Noel Twomey, was jailed for 12 years after he was caught in a similar surveillance operation. Gardai had gone under cover in woodland and spotted him collecting a bag containing £5,000 worth of amphetamines.